The Firebug series 1 - The Witch
by MavenAlysse
Summary: AU: how the episode 'The Witch' would have gone differently with the hlep of a 'gift' of Xander's.
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Firebug series: The Witch

Author: Maven Alysse

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Amy/Xander friendship

summary: AU: How the episode 'The Witch' would have gone differently with the help of a 'gift' of Xander's.

A/N: (inspired by Xander's neighbor's house burning when he wanted a fire truck for his 7th birthday, and the _librum incendere_ incident in "Superstar")

Cathrine Madison let out a shriek of outrage and disbelief as her spell book suddenly went up in flames. She overturned her tea on it, but it burned merrily on, the pages curling, blackening, and falling into white ash. The crackle of flame sounding like mocking laughter.

She could feel the palms of her hands blister as she beat frantically at the small blaze. It ignored her attempts to smother it, the last corner finally succumbing like the rest. And with the destruction of her spell book, all her spells dissolved like smoke on the wind.

She felt a tug on her spirit, wrenching her from her daughter's body and back into her own.

Amy could sense someone nearby as she lay on the carpet. Carpet? The last thing she remembered was looking for her mother at the high school. A hand touched her neck and she flinched. "Amy? You okay?" the voice was familiar. Who was it?

She groaned softly, shifting uncomfortably. She ached in places she didn't even know she had. And she felt smaller, somehow. Her hands hurt, too. "Oh, that..." she blinked, her eyes focusing on unusually somber brown eyes. "Xander? Did...? What...? Where's my mom?"

He helped her sit up and she felt the room spin a bit. "At school. Remember? You figured to confront her during cheerleading practice? Buffy and Willow were going as support? Only, no one figured she'd come home."

"Oh." He got her to her feet and she stumbled a bit as he lead her to the couch. She sat thinking over the past few months, her mother had taken over her body, and she'd been in hers. It had been horrible. Trapped both in a body she was unfamiliar with, as well as at the house. And she still had to do homework! Being belittled by her mother, no way out. Being discovered by the Scoobies. Gathering up her courage to finally confront her mother and demand she switch them back. Her thoughts spun dizzily and she was only peripherally aware of Xander's exit from the room. It wasn't until she felt someone wrapping one of her burned hands that she refocused on her surroundings. Xander sat on the coffee table opposite her, an open first aid kit beside him. With gentle and confident movements, he spread burn ointment over the palm of her hand, placed a clean gauze pad over it, and began loosely wrapping gauze around the whole hand to keep it in place. She frowned as a thought came to her. "If everyone's at the school, why are you here?"

"Thought I'd see if I could find her spell book. Destroy it if I could. It was the only way to safely cancel the spells she was doing." He moved to work on her other hand.

She glanced down to where a weapon lay innocently propped against the coffee table. "And the axe?"

He met her eyes, unapologetically. "The unsafe way to stop the spells."

"Oh." Surprisingly, she felt no anger or righteous indignation at what he had planned to do. Her mother had been trying to kill his friends, she could not blame him for wanting to protect them.

He finished wrapping her hands. "There. All done."

She examined them, curious. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"Lots of practice." He replaced everything in the first aid kit and leaned back some, studying her for a moment. "It'll be about a week before you'll be able to use your hands comfortably. Don't burst the blisters. Let them heal on their own, or you'll end up with scarring. You'll need to change the bandages at least once a day, more if you get them wet. Is your dad still around? I haven't seen him in a while."

Amy shook her head. "No. He moved out a couple months before the whole body-snatching thing. He lives in L.A."

"Would he let you stay with him? Even if it's just long enough to recover?"

"Pretty sure," she fell silent. Dad had tried to tell her that it wasn't her fault that he was leaving, but at the time she could only feel betrayed. It would be nice to see her dad again.

"If you've got his number handy, I'll dial for you."

Xander propped the handset between her ear and her shoulder and took the first aid kit with him to the kitchen to give her some privacy. "Daddy? Can I come stay with you for a while? Mom's gone crazy and both my hands are burned. I don't want to stay here, daddy. Kinda. I don't want to talk about it right now. ... Really? ... Thank you, daddy. I'll see you soon. ... Love you, too. Bye." She fumbled for the receiver, managing to clumsily return it to the base. "I'm done, Xander."

He re-entered the room carrying two glasses of water, one with a straw in it. "Things good?"

"Yeah." She sipped the water, gratefully. "He said he'll call the bus station about a ticket for me and meet me at the station in L.A. I just got to pack and get there."

"If you don't have a problem with it, I'll help you pack. Unless you'd rather I call Willow over?" She raised a brow at that. He shrugged, looking a bit sheepish, "Girly things."

Amy felt her face warm, but shook her head. "I don't mind. I'd rather not wait, you know? Can we get out of here?"

"Gotcha. Okay, let's get a-packing."

They arrived at the Sunnydale Bus Depot twenty minutes later. Xander had her packed up with necessities, as well as mementos she didn't want to leave behind. He'd also gotten her to smile and laugh for the first time since the whole nightmare had begun. He escorted her to her bus, handing the ticket over to the driver for her. He settled her into her seat. "Good luck, Amy."

"Thanks. Can-can you let me know what happened? You know, with my mom?"

"Sure, Aims. I've got your dad's number. I'll call later tonight once you're settled."

"Thank you, Xander. For everything." She kissed his cheek, for once not embarrassed at showing affection to a boy. He grinned back and stepped off the bus. As the bus pulled away, she watched his waving figure until it disappeared when they turned a corner. She sighed to herself, things were going to be okay.

2/18/07

- Maven Alysse


	2. Chapter 2

For those of you who felt the story was incomplete – hopefully, this fills in some holes.

Chapter 2 - Explanations, of sorts.

As the bus turned the corner, Xander dropped his hand to his side and sighed. He sent a quick prayer to whoever -good- was listening that Amy got to her father's safely. Turning, hands shoved deep into his pockets, he slowly made his way from the bus station to the school. The others were probably going to want an explanation of where he had gone and what he had done. He sighed softly to himself and tugged on the green over-shirt he wore, ensuring the battle ax was hidden from casual view. He knew that he shouldn't have brought it to the bus station, but no way was he leaving it at the Madison's. No telling what funky mojo might infect it.

"Think they'd believe she accidentally set her book on fire herself?" He shook his head, "No. Mrs. Madison was too smart for that." He sighed again, shuffling his feet along the sidewalk. "Guess I'll have to tell the truth. I set it on fire." A swift glance confirmed the street was empty and he glared at a leaf hanging from a branch above his head. As he watched, the leaf curled, blackened, and fell to the sidewalk as ash. "Well. Most of the truth, anyway."

"So, exactly what did you do, Xander?" Rupert Giles sat across from the teens at the Library.

"I figured, if you were confronting Mrs. Madison here at the school that her spell book would be left unattended. So I went over to destroy it, burn it if I could. Unfortunately, Mrs. Madison, in Amy's body, had come home to look up something in her book. So, I created a diversion in the kitchen and when she ran to take care of that I took one of the lit candles and **swoosh**!" He thought for a moment, "It went up quicker than I expected."

"Yes," Giles nodded absently. "Since most spell books are usually only vulnerable to a specific medium, such as fire, they tend to be most susceptible to that medium." At the blank looks, he sighed, "If fire is what destroys it, then it'll go up quick."

"Oh."

Giles' lips twitch, "So, what happened next?"

"She tried to put the fire out with her hands. Burned them pretty bad. Once the book was destroyed she screamed and collapsed. I waited a bit and it was Amy who woke up. I bandaged her hands, helped her contact her dad, got her packed and saw her off at the bus station."

"That was quick thinking, Xan," Buffy grinned at him, thumping him lightly – for a Slayer – on the shoulder.

He suppressed a grimace, "Thanks. But, what happened when the spell ended? What happened to Amy's mom?"

The three exchanged looks. "Well. We're not exactly sure," Buffy began.

"Mrs. Madison – who we thought was Amy -" Xander winced at that, he hadn't thought that with Amy back in her own body, Mrs. Madison would be back in hers as well, and within striking distance to his friends. "Suddenly started shrieking and cursing," Willow blushed at the memory of some of the words used. "She glared at us, said we wouldn't stop her. That's she'd still be popular."

Giles interjected, "She seemed quite unhinged. She attempted to cast a spell at Buffy. From some of the words I could understand, it appears she was trying the body-swap spell."

"And?" Xander prompted when all three fell silent.

"I pulled the hallway mirror off the wall. You know, the half-circle one? The spell bounced off the mirror, hit her and ricocheted someplace." Buffy shrugged, "Not too sure where she ended up, but we haven't seen her since. I'm thinking: Problem Solved."

Xander frowned a bit, "No way to – I don't know – track the magical signature to see where it went?" At the looks of surprise, he threw his hands up in defense. "Read it a 'Doctor Strange' comic."

"There might be. I'd have to research. Unfortunately, by the time I find the spell the 'signature' may have dissipated. But I shall endeavor to try. It's a good suggestion, Xander."

"It's just that I promised Aims I'd try to let her know how things went. It'd definitely be a load off her mind if her mom's whereabouts were known."

"Quite right. I get right on it. The three of you should head home. It's been quite a day."

"Coolness," Buffy leaped out of her chair. "So ... Bronze?"

"I'm in. Xander?" Willow glanced at her oldest friend.

"Sorry ladies, gonna have to take a rain check. The Xan-man's beat. See ya tomorrow."

"Okay. Night, Xander."

"Night."

He headed home, he really was beat. Creating fire took a lot of energy. He didn't do it very often, and he usually paid for it later either with exhaustion or a mega headache.

Ever since he was really little, small fires had a way of popping into existence around him – especially when he was angry or scared. But it wasn't until shortly after his 7th birthday – when he'd desperately wanted a fire truck and his neighbor's house had caught fire – that he'd figured out he was the cause of the fires. At first, he believed that Willow had caused the fire, knowing how upset he'd been about not getting a fire truck for his birthday – but when a week later a glass of whiskey on the kitchen table had caught fire when his dad had cornered him ... well, that's when 2 + 2 equaled Xander.

He made it upstairs without incident and quickly readied for bed. Turning off the lights he wondered if he'd ever tell his friends about his ability. 'They might be okay with it. Or they might decide it's demonic in nature and then I'm a Xander-pancake.' He sighed, pulled the covers up, and stared out the window. 'Maybe someday. But not today.' With that final thought, he fell asleep.

10/9/07

MavenAlysse


End file.
